City Of Napa's Petition For Receivership Appointment Granted By Napa County Superior Court

Press release from the City of Napa:

December 14, 2022

NAPA, CA — The Code Enforcement Division is committed to working with residents in a joint effort to preserve, improve and maintain the quality of life throughout the Napa community. As such, the Code Enforcement team strives to address adverse impacts on the health, safety, and welfare of the community and enforce the City’s municipal code through education and voluntary compliance.

Since July 2021, the City has responded to a series of complaints regarding 3558 Jefferson Street in Napa. Initially, the complaints began with Vehicle Code violations and escalated over time to include issues caused by a damaged plumbing system, complaints of waste accumulation, in addition to regular calls for service to the Napa Police Department to address ongoing criminal activity.

The City assisted the property owner on multiple occasions, from obtaining funds to pay for plumbing repairs and providing waste disposal dumpsters at no charge. Unfortunately, despite the City’s assistance to the property owner over nearly 13 months, little meaningful progress was made by the owner and the complaints from the community continued. On August 11, 2022, the City’s Code Enforcement team, Fire Marshal, and the Chief Building Official inspected the property’s interior and found extensive violations. Due to health and safety concerns, the nuisances on the property needed to be abated without further delay. The property owner was given until September 16th to begin addressing the life safety issues within the property. The property owner failed to do so, and the City took legal action to abate the issues through the appointment of a receiver. On December 13, 2022, the City obtained an order from the Napa County Superior Court granting the City’s petition for appointment of a receiver to abate the substandard conditions at 3558 Jefferson Street.

This case has been long and arduous for many community members. The challenges faced at this property were egregious and required a response that was beyond that of typical code enforcement. The City continues to look at ways to improve the code enforcement process. Currently, the City is exploring additional tools to abate problematic cases and respond to structures posing threats to the health and safety of the community.

If you are a member of the City of Napa community and would like to report a Code Enforcement violation, please go to the City of Napa website at the link provided here to submit a complaint. You can also call the general Code Enforcement line at 707-257-9646 if you have any questions or would like to submit a formal complaint regarding a property. Thank you for helping keep our community safe.

This press release was produced by the City of Napa. The views expressed here are the author’s own.